By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

The assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) found that no public health risk exists from drinking water in the Mary Lane, Kentish Hills, Castle Estates or Parkview subdivisions. Health risks may be prevalent, however, to people who trench in the area and become exposed to high levels of tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

The southwestern and south central Grand Island subdivisions were added to the federal Superfund list in April 2006. Industrial solvents were discovered in 1999 in a municipal water well, which has since been shut down and capped. Groundwater testing of private wells in area began finding volatile organic compounds above safe drinking water standards in 2003.

"Basically, the conclusions we reached are, in the past, although there appears to have been groundwater contamination, the level of contamination was unlikely to be a cause of public health concern," said Deborah Boling, a commander for the U.S. Public Health Service and health assessor for the Parkview site.

"People were unlikely to become ill from drinking the water," she said.

Boling said homes with private wells in the area have either been hooked up to city water or fitted with whole-house filtration systems. Either is a remedy and resolves any public health risk.

Homes not found to have contaminated water supplies in the area continue to be monitored every three to four months by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Sue Casteel, the regional representative for ATSDR.

Boling said the effects of consuming the water were evaluated from a time frame of 1999 to present. The agency did not evaluate the impact to people who consumed the water prior to that time, she said.

Exposure to the water is the subject of a 2004 federal lawsuit filed on behalf 255 plaintiffs who allege personal, property and financial damage due to the industrial solvents in the water supply. At least six of the plaintiffs are dead allegedly because of exposure to myriad hazardous substances, including PCE. At least four of those six died in their 40s or 50s.

Boling said that, while consumption of the water is not considered a health risk, inhalation of vapors containing PCE is.

"It could be a public health concern, but only if a person were to dig into the ground over a level where there's a high concentration of PCE in the groundwater plume," she said. "We consider this basically to be a worker who would be exposed for a very long period of time."

That exposure was defined as more then 100 parts per million of PCE over eight hours a day for a 40-hour work week.

Casteel said PCE gives off an odor of dry cleaning solvents, which would be a warning signal for workers to get out of the area.

When the contamination was first discovered in 1999, state health officials advised residents in the affected neighborhoods to avoid showering or bathing in the water due to the vapors.

Boling said showering or bathing in the water now is not a concern.

Despite the conclusion of no present public health risk, Boling still recommended against ingestion.

"It is our recommendation that people do not drink the water that hasn't gone through some filtration system," Boling said.

Continued monitoring and continued education to the public was also recommended by ATSDR.

When asked whether anyone could have had exposure to PCE in the subdivisions that led to adverse health effects, Boling was clear.

"Based upon the data I've reviewed quite unlikely," she said.

A formal cleanup plan of the contaminated groundwater has been approved but not yet implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency due to a shortage of federal funds.

ATSDR's 22-page health assessment report with 34 pages of appendices is on file now at the Grand Island Public Library. ATSDR will accept written comments regarding the report through May 7.